The Air China flight was pretty dismal. I was looking forward to riding on Air China because I despise flying United internationally. As mentioned before, international flights seem to be treated as a seniority gig for United. It’s the landing place for the most unfriendly, geriatric and overweight of flight attendants. Since I usually sit on an aisle I’m constantly subject to being jarred as they try to sidestep their bulk down the aisle, then receive the evil eye if they don’t think I accommodated them enough or as they refuse my request for a ‘double’.

Once arriving at Guilin Airport we still had another 90+ minute ride to Yangshuo. The Guilin area (Jianxi Province) is known for being scenic and relatively free of air pollution (mostly agricultural). Unfortunately we ran into some bad timing as it was smack dab in the middle of the rice harvest and every farmer was burning off leftover straw. This produced a semi-transparent white haze over the whole region. My initial impression of Yangshuo itself was that it wasn't all that charming, compared to say... Lijiang, but it is practical and convenient.